Retired a quarter century and counting

With Americans living longer, it’s probably to be expected that America’s former top executives are going to enjoy long retirements, too. But it still seems like news that last week, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale surpassed John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to live longer since leaving office than any other former president and vice president in American history — 25 years and 123 days. Retirement from the White House has its perks, but it can’t be easy to watch succeeding administrations come and go and, in your view, muck it all up.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

6 Comments

  1. Joe Williams
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 3:06 am | Permalink

    Gerald Ford is still around, although Rockerfeller didn’t make it out of the 70’s.

  2. Ed Friedemann
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 11:28 am | Permalink

    Mr. Carter had Arafat and Rabin within striking distance of finalizing an end to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and had he applied big-time muscle, Mr. Carter could have solved the problem once and for all.

    Mr. Carter may not be the swiftest horse in the race, but he’s a kind, caring and gentle man of good will.

    If Mr. Carter could have foreseen the ruthless death and suffering and unimaginable horrors, which the Zionist war-criminal Ariel Sharon was going to inflict on the Palestinians, then perhaps he could have found the strength to cross his grain and combat that evil.

    I’d like to think so.

  3. Ben Huie
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 1:33 pm | Permalink

    I think Rabin might have been able to see a peace deal through had he not been assasinated by terrorists.

  4. J R
    Posted May 28, 2006 at 11:06 pm | Permalink

    This of course begs the question of what will become of george bush?

    He is unfortunately in excellent physical health. So he will be with us for an unfortunately long time.

    What does the most hated man on the planet do with his retirement?

    He WANTED to be baseball commissioner, not President. My bet is baseball will stay far away from him though. It’s just about dead anyway.

    I KNOW! He should spend his retirement looking for Osama bin Laden and the weapons of mass destruction that he said Iraq had! You know, like OJ Simpson is gonna find the REAL killers of his wife!

    25 years MAY be enough for bush to be regarded as anything resembling presidential. But I doubt it.

  5. Outlander
    Posted May 29, 2006 at 7:18 am | Permalink

    “What does the most hated man on the planet do with his retirement?”

    Most hated man onthe planet?

    JR, as Ronald Reagan once said, coincidentally to Jimmy Carter; “Now there you go again”.

  6. Nathan
    Posted May 29, 2006 at 10:10 am | Permalink

    “He is unfortunately in excellent physical health.”

    JR,

    This is what makes you an irrational and emotional person without reason and logic in a political discussion.

    Regardless of how much I disliked Carter or his policies or what he keeps doing around the world I am not going to wish ill on the man.

    I wish he would go to a lake somewhere and shut up, but not be in bad health.

    Grow up. And teach your kid math instead of how to make fun of Bush too… Sigh…